


Another story to tell

by Dansnotavampire



Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: (mentioned) - Freeform, Angst, Graveside monologues, Grief/Mourning, Gun Violence, M/M, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:41:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22964839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dansnotavampire/pseuds/Dansnotavampire
Relationships: Lyfrassir Edda/Marius von Raum
Comments: 11
Kudos: 58





	Another story to tell

Lyfrassir Edda's gravestone is carved from granite. It strikes Marius as a rather unfitting stone to have chosen, given what he knew of them at the end, but it is at least pretty. The text on the stone is inlaid with bismuth, and it catches the light in beautiful ways, rainbow iridescence highlighting the name of the man that Marius never allowed himself to love. 

It's been a hundred years to the day since they died. A gunshot wound, in between the eyes and out through the back, an explosion of glistening blood and shards of white bone. Lyf had already had more years than they should have done, the baleful blessing of the Bifrost granting them more years - and more nightmares - than anyone should ever get to have. It didn't make it hurt any less. 

Marius hadn't seen the grave until now - Lyf's body isn't interred under it, their ashes scattered throughout space, and throughout the halls of the Aurora. Their funeral had been beautiful, with whiskey flowing like blood, and fireworks filling the empty sky. 

(Marius had sobbed in his room after, for hours. No one except the Toy Soldier had seen him, and it could almost always be trusted to keep a secret if you ordered it.)

The grave is empty, and the soil above it is bare bar the headstone. Marius lays the stolen necklace down on it, and pours out the dregs of a now-three hundred year old bottle of booze, the particular Midgardian mead that Lyf had always been so fond of. He sits, leaning against the headstone, drinking from his own bottle, ignoring the dampness of the earth staining his coat, his trousers, welcoming the roughness of the granite under his fingers. 

"Sorry it took me so long to visit, Lyf. Lyfrassir. Edda. Inspector. I don't know what I should call you, to be honest." A pause, a longing, melancholy sigh. 

"I know that I miss you, though. I should have come sooner, or I should have stopped the bullet, or I should have told you not to go out that night in the first place. Maybe then you'd still be here. Oh well. 

"Still. Tonight isn't about my guilt. It's about… I don't know what it's about, to be honest. It's about you, mostly, and it's about us, partly, and it's about me, though not very much. I loved you, Lyf. I think you knew that, even if I never told you. I hope you knew that - it's not like I ever took a bullet for any of the rest of them. 

"I know, I know, you snarky bastard, I should have told you. It might not have saved you, but at least we could have gotten a few good years together. That's the thing about immortality, though. It makes you complacent. 

"If I'd known that we wouldn't have eternity together, I might have made sure we had some time together at all. Funny, isn't it, how that works out. 

"I mean, I figured I would die  _ eventually,  _ because everything does. But… I kind of figured I would be the one to go first. I never wanted to be left grieving, I never asked to be  _ left alone. _ "

At this point, Marius pulls out a small bottle of purple nail polish, the kind that Lyf wore almost constantly. As silent tears start to roll down his cheeks, unwanted, unbidden, unacknowledged, he slowly starts to paint his nails. 

"What I mean to say, Lyf, is that I miss you. And I-  _ fuck.  _ I wish you weren't dead, you stupid, stubborn, foolish, brave, brave,  _ brave  _ man. And I loved you - love you, still. I'm sorry I didn't ever tell you that. I just- I don't think I was ever brave enough. I'm sorry." 

Marius does up the nail polish, and with that, he presses a kiss to the gravestone, as he never did to Lyf when they were alive, his whiskey-stained lips leaving a dark mark on the rock. He stands, finishes his whiskey with a long pull, leaves the bottle, and walks away. 

Hopefully, when he comes back in another hundred years, he'll have more interesting stories to tell. 


End file.
